Law History Profiles

Geoff was born in Victoria on May 1, 1945. The family moved to Burnaby where his father built the house that Geoff lived in until he left home. Geoff was only ten years old when his father passed away from injuries he sustained from his Navy years. Geoff grew up quickly, learning about responsibilities working first as a paperboy, then with Safeway. He excelled in all that he took on from an early age. As a teenager he progressed through the scouting movement to become a Queen's Scout. Throughout his lifetime Geoff exhibited his integrity, honour and compassion for others…

David Mossop received his law degree from UBC in 1970, and has since pursued an impressive career in Community Law. Representing the interests of disadvantaged members of society on various cases has brought him before 34 different administrative tribunals and courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada.

A partner with Rush, Crane, Guenther, Stuart Rush provides ongoing litigation and counsel for the Okanagan, Kwakiutl, and Pic River Ojibway First Nations as well as the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, and speaks extensively on Aboriginal rights and the use of oral history evidence. He was appointed Queens Counsel in 1992. These are his words:

On May 12, 2000, the Honourable Mr. Justice Donald I. Brenner accepted the invitation of Prime Minister Jean Chretien to become the 14th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. In what has been described by many from both the bench and bar as a touch of genius, his appointment brings to the Office of Chief Justice the skills and personal attributes for which Don has become so well regarded and which will serve the court well in the years to come ... 

 Joost Blom was born in Pitt Meadows and received his BA from UBC in 1967. He went on to complete a LLB at UBC in 1970 before pursuing a BCL from Oxford in 1972. Universities were vigorously expanding throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s: more students were coming and more professors were needed. When UBC Law opened in 1945, there were only two full-time faculty members, Dean George Curtis and Frederick “Pappy” Read, with much of the teaching duties falling on practicing members of the local bar.

Harold Meyerman was born and raised in the Netherlands and moved to Canada in 1957. He studied both commerce and law at UBC. Mr. Meyerman fondly remembers running the Thunderbird Shop at the UBC-Vancouver campus. Mr. Meyerman's wife, Dorothy, describes that, "although Harold never praised law, that experience and education has stood him in great stead." As a symbol of Mr. Meyerman's appreciation and continuing support of the Allard School of Law, the law school at UBC was named as a beneficiary of the Meyerman Family Trust.

After graduating from Harvard Law School, it soon became clear to Professor Bill Black that he would rather teach law than practice it, and the Allard School of Law was the ideal place to do so.

“I once had an interview with a big, corporate law firm in Seattle … I remember thinking at the time, ‘I’m not sure I can hold out the hour of the interview, much less 20 years,’” he said. “Perhaps if I had interviewed with a firm that had focused on my areas of interest, I would have had a different response. But I have never regretted choosing an academic career.”

Professor Michael Jackson is looking for justice. Professor Jackson, who has just won a national award for his work in advancing human rights and correctional practice in Canada, advocates on behalf of prisoners. The nature of the prisoners’ crimes – from robbery to murder – has often given the public an excuse to turn a blind eye to the suffering and discrimination prisoners may face both in and out of prison: assault by guards and other inmates, long stretches in solitary confinement, intimidation and threats of vigilante justice in the community. 

“It starts before Vancouver Island because I was born in Coal Creek … that was a town that once existed outside of Fernie, which was once a coal-mining town. I moved from there as an infant, I suppose when the mine shut down, a lot of people moved to the Cumberland area, around that time when the mine shutting down. The town was around long enough when my father was born in Coal Creek too," explains Bill Ferguson ...

Originally from Vermont, Carey Linde was known for his student radicalism during his time at the University of British Columbia, where he first enrolled in 1960. He came to UBC with an interest in all things zoological, but was influenced by his international roommate in housing at Acadia camp and as a result discovered a multitude of interests in areas such as history, philosophy, and his eventual major of psychology. Following this discovery, he, with an impression similar to many students of the era, found UBC had little to offer him. Seeking other outlets for his new interests, Mr.

For over 35 years, Arthur L. Close, Q.C., has been both the face and the heart of law reform in British Columbia. He retired as executive director of the B.C. Law Institute in March of this year, and this is a suitable time to look back and celebrate his remarkable accomplishments ...

While Dave always defended all his clients with great vigour and determination, his relations with bench and bar alike always remained cordial. His candor and ever-present wit were qualities that endeared him to his colleagues at the bar, to the judges before whom he appeared and to the jurors to whom he pleaded so successfully. There are many wonderful stories of moments in and out of court when Dave brought a smile to the faces of those around him...

“I was born in Bulawayo, what was then Rhodesia, and what is now Zimbabwe, in 1945 ... December 12, 1945,” says Dennis Pavlich, “I had a great education. I went to a Jesuit college and was actually a boarder there. The Jesuits, despite some of the negative legendary stuff around them, were superb educators. They were superb educators because, in a rather subtle way, they were very much into expanding the mind” …

Allen Soroka attended law school at the University of Virginia, where he recalls that every second student was the son of a governor. He worked as a criminal defense lawyer for four years before relocating to New York and working at the Federal Reserve Bank. Wanting to raise a family, he took night classes at Columbia University to obtain a Master of Library Science degree, and subsequently relocated to Vancouver to take up a position in the Law Library at UBC in October of 1969.

Charng-Ven Chen was born in China but fled with his family to Taiwan at a young age. His father was an officer in the army of the nationalist Republic of China government. After the Republic's retreat to Taiwan, his father was ordered back to fighting in China, where he was killed. CV Chen admires his mother for her strength and compassion to raise his and his siblings on her own.

Ralston Alexander, Q.C., assumed the presidency of the Law Society of British Columbia on January 1, 2005. Knowing Ralston, he likely celebrated the event with a round of golf. Ralston was born in Toronto in 1944, and two years later trekked west with his parents, first to Kamloops and then to Salmon Arm, where his father established a medical practice.

Gary L.F. Somers was born and raised in New Westminster, B.C. where his parents owned and operated the city's landmark Terminal Pub. He attended law school at the University of British Columbia, obtaining an LL. B. in 1969. He founded his own law firm in 1980, Somers and Company, to serve his hometown of New Westminster. The firm has since grown to over 20 lawyers, including Mr. Somers own two sons.

On August 21, 1991, J.J. Camp became the 63rd President of the Canadian Bar Association. He is the 10th lawyer from British Columbia to occupy that position during the 76-year life of the Association ...

I can still visualize that race well. A rowing race in the Olympics is about 240 strokes, give or take, over 2,000 metres. You break down your race strategy into 500 metre quadrants. My partner, now Dr. Roger Jackson, and I were not the favoured pairs team. Our even making the finals was definitely a surprise to the rowing world. But we had the fastest times in the qualifying heat, so we knew we were competitive ... 

The Honourable Anne Rowles passed away on November 13, 2019 at the age of 78. Anne was a strong supporter of our students, faculty and staff and will be fondly remembered.